October 28th-29th, 2022
Easy working day and quality time with a friend
October 28th, 2022
It is Friday and is still a working day. I made a perfect setup right in front of Christina Camperlust. I opened the awning and set my table. I just sat there, sipped on my freshly brewed coffee, and did my work. The weather was perfect. It was around 20 °C with the sun shining bright in the sky. Fortunately, it was a calm day at work with no meetings.
Inna was planning to come to visit me at the campsite and at the same time, we could visit a few places around me. There were a few parks to visit as well as the Louis Vuitton Foundation. I met her at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. It was nothing spectacular. We were anticipating something unique. In all fairness, the building looked nice, but there was no way I would spend 10-20€ to visit the foundation.
From there we decided to take a walk and visit the parks on the way and do a bit of shopping for dinner. It was about 3-4km back to the campsite.
Parc de Bagatelle was on the way to the campsite. We entered with the expectation that it was going to be a regular park, like other parks you see elsewhere. To our amazement, it turned out to be a garden that belonged to an old villa. I don’t know about the history of the villa. The park was splendid with rose gardens and birds. What caught my attention was the presence of peacocks. I was amazed when I saw one and I started taking pictures of it. Soon after I realized that there are actually many of them just roaming around the park. There were ponds and pools around the park with fish just swimming around them.
After a nice and relaxing walk, it was time to get back to the campsite and prepare dinner. We just sat outside, enjoyed the beautiful weather, drank some Belgian beer, ate, and talked until Inna had to get back to her friend’s place later at night. We had more plans for the next day.
More sightseeing and Dining
October 29th, 2022
Finally, the weekend arrived and after a whole week of working and traveling, I could just relax and enjoy what Paris has to offer. Inna and I agreed to meet early in the afternoon. I went somewhere relatively close to our meeting point earlier to visit a few sights on my own and just walk around the Parisian streets. The first place I visited was the Square of Saint-Jacques Tower. It was there that a drunk guy shoved me and I think he attempted to pickpocket. I pushed him back and as he walked away, I saw policemen entering the park. I told them what happened and gave the description of the man, and in response, they just said “ah, welcome to Paris”! Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris was only a few blocks away. Even though it is still under renovation after the fire in 2019, it is still a beautiful place to visit.
Inna and I finally met and started the remaining of our sightseeing tour. It was lucky that she had a friend in Paris who could give us hints on what to do and visit. Inna’s friend, Giulia, was going to join us a bit later. We visited the National Archives of France. The villa has a garden in Paris which is quite unusual. And the whole visit was free of charge.
On the way to Parc Monceau, we saw a boat going through a canal. They were lowering the boat to the next section of the canal which was a scene to see!
After a stroll in the park, Giulia and Inna took a bus back home and I went to Arc de Triomphe to take a metro back to the campsite. We were going to meet with some other friends of Inna’s and Giulia’s for dinner later in the evening.
I had a few hours before getting back to the city. On the way to the campsite from the metro station, I saw a hairdressing salon open that happen to have time to give me a haircut. There were two nice hairdressers and the one who was assigned to cut my hair did not speak a word of English. But the other one did speak a few words. Anyways, how hard can it be to cut a few hairs left on me? I had enough time to take a shower and head back to the metro station and go to the restaurant. I actually, arrived at the restaurant a bit early before everyone else. I booked a table for all 6 of us and sat there with a pint of beer waiting for the troops to arrive. They got there in just 10-15 mins and by the time others got to the restaurant, I was already dry. It was a nice restaurant with great quality food and reasonably priced. We just talked, shared, gossiped, and had fun until it was quite late. At least, Inna and I had plans for the next day and we needed a good rest.
